I ran my first batch of this as a sacrificial run on my still. I was impressed with the ferment and enjoy the fact that working at a bakery in Denmark I have access to plenty of rye bread.

The spirit however seemed pretty oily and cloudy and just didn't smell great. I was wondering if it was due to the fact I did not rack and clear my ferment. I just strained it into the pot still and let it rip.

I have another batch ticking away now that I was going to split in two to see if settling is important. Anyone have any pointers or suggestions on this? I'll post in a couple weeks with my own results.

well it was your sac run! You cleaned the still and that's most likely what you had inside it. Was it cloudy and oily throughout the whole run or did it clear up at the end? I am asking because you might need another sac run if the first was not enough

It started off looking fine. I'm just getting back into the hobby after a long break so I'm comfortable, on a basic level, with how things should look, taste and feel like coming out of the still. Just a little out of touch and practice.

On a 20l charge, following the recipe with the exception of half sugar, I had the standard nasty fores, 500ml of clear heads/hearts coming out at 35% and then everything after was a little hazy and smelling very much of tails. It's gone now, so no loss.

I started by racking, settling, racking and have now moved to skimming off the top rye bread floaters and pouring right into the still stopping right before the yeast and rye bread sludge comes over. I've noticed no difference in end result with both methods providing a nice base for my gin. The malty spice adds something extra nice.

I'm distilling on a pretty heavy pot over induction so I don't really need to worry about scorching. The time saved not racking and cold crashing buckets is a real bonus.

I've read this thread a couple times and am quite excited to give this recipe a go. And I've found a few sources for the proper dense euro rye bread. However, finding preservative-free bread has been difficult in Tasmania. I found one source of organic bread, but it was very expensive. Does using bread with preservatives kill the yeast or hinder them (label never mentions what type of preservative)? Maybe there is a way to nullify the preservatives? I'm new to stilling and occasionally get hung-up on these little details...

A solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. Therefore, whiskey is a solution despite what any tee-totaling jerk tells you.

I am using this recipe as my main way of making likker at the moment (I am still looking for good souces for fruit and melasse). I am fprtunate to live in the Netherlands, so it is no problem to source the rye bread. We do have a lot of different ones though, and I buy the cheapest (only 0,35 eurpcent/500g), and it has preservatives (E200 and E282, both acids).I haven't found any problem for the yeast. Yeast likes an acid environment anyway!

So I say: go for it!

By the way: I am getting good feedback in my 'Riskey', which I have only shortly been aging on beechwood. I really like this recipe!

I'm sure preservatives in the processed food I eat are what keep me so young & handsome so I won't worry about them!

I believe I read in this long thread that the rye whiskey tastes nice as white un-aged spirit. Great, cause I'm not patient when it comes to tastings! But what is the general consensus for aging it with wood chunks? Charred, un-charred, anything else?

A solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. Therefore, whiskey is a solution despite what any tee-totaling jerk tells you.

White is really nice too indeed! My 'aged' one is from 17-03-2017, so it's not really old yet, but I can already taste that it gets smoother... I age on beechwood chips, that I bake in a cooking pan until they are slightly scorched. The chips are for hamsters, and really cheap. I had them already for smoking meat.

I've whipped up a batch using your recipe. Ended up using Mestemacher pumpernickel all natural with whole eye kernels (which can be ordered on amazon and came so poorly packed it was "precrumbled"!) Crumbled and cooked as you described in your fine tuned recipe. Added the yeast nutrient for good measure and pitched bakers yeast. It's gurgling away! How long do you "put it on wood" after you distill? And what are you using? (Charred white oak?) I'm a newbie to all this so if I ask anything dumb, feel free to correct me. So I went back and read all the posts in this thread. Many people say leave white. Others say if you put it in wood, be light handed and oak may be too strong. Did I miss anything or does anyone have exact amount/time that worked well? Thanks!

I'll be distilling my first batch of this whiskey tomorrow, which is also my very first batch! I'm also curious what oaking/aging are suggested. I've got some medium toasted oak dominos and some charred oak too.

A solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. Therefore, whiskey is a solution despite what any tee-totaling jerk tells you.

So I did my first 2 runs of this, one with what I thought was a very dense pumpernickel I got at kroger. Then I found some of the Mestemacher brand, and apparently what I thought was very dense wasn't even close to this stuff, and it turned out a hundred times better.

So in my limited experience I would highly recommend going with Mestemacher if you are starting out. You can get it on Amazon Prime, 6 loaves for $25.

Ran a spirit run of this yesterday, tasted pretty good. Got the Mestemacher pumpernickel at Wally world, but also found a North American maker (Kasseler) that claims "The whole grain rye kernels are baked in the true Westphalian tradition for 17 hours in a specially built steam oven. To our knowledge,there are no other bakeries in North America that go to the expense of using this authentic method to produce their Pumpernickel" I thought it had more flavour than the Mestemacher, but my source so far was same price for loaves half the size.

Biona Organic Pumpernickel Bread is traditionally made in Germany by organic bakers. It is crammed full of crunchy, nutty wholegrains which are an essential part of a healthy, fibre-rich diet. Pumpernickel is made from wholemeal rye by grinding the whole rye berry and baking it very slowly until it caramelises, giving it its distinctive flavour and colour.

StarkBlood1980 wrote:Hi OdinI’ve just read though the whole 11 pages of this thread and I’d like to try making this.I’m trying to find the right bread in the UK which seems harder than it should,What do you think about this one?https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/pumpernickel-bread-biona

Biona Organic Pumpernickel Bread is traditionally made in Germany by organic bakers. It is crammed full of crunchy, nutty wholegrains which are an essential part of a healthy, fibre-rich diet. Pumpernickel is made from wholemeal rye by grinding the whole rye berry and baking it very slowly until it caramelises, giving it its distinctive flavour and colour.

Thanks in advance Chris

Looking good!

Regards, Odin.

"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.

StarkBlood1980 wrote:Hi OdinI’ve just read though the whole 11 pages of this thread and I’d like to try making this.I’m trying to find the right bread in the UK which seems harder than it should,What do you think about this one?https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/pumpernickel-bread-biona

Biona Organic Pumpernickel Bread is traditionally made in Germany by organic bakers. It is crammed full of crunchy, nutty wholegrains which are an essential part of a healthy, fibre-rich diet. Pumpernickel is made from wholemeal rye by grinding the whole rye berry and baking it very slowly until it caramelises, giving it its distinctive flavour and colour.

Thanks in advance Chris

Looking good!

Regards, Odin.

Thanks Odin, I emailed them today to which their reply was they bake their pumpernickel for 16 hours!

Just started a 5 gal batch of this. I followed the recipe (Mestemacher Pumpernickel bread) faithfully except for the yeast. I used Red Star Premier Blanc. I am a newbie so will report back with a newbies' perspective. Whatever that is worth.

I was going to do this as a separate fermentation, but I just finished a series of flaked barley sugar washes and thought it would be easier to just reuse the yeast/trub. I also used backset from the barley stripping run and then combined it with the boiled up rye bread and let them cool down together.

I've managed to find the Bolletje product down here in New Zealand for $3.50 (per 500g) in the local currency. Not bad for 'exotic' import goods .